There should be greater awareness of the obstacles that women working in the mining industry have to overcome, says training solutions provider KBC Health and Safety COO Sian Thurtell.

She says women working in the industry deal with challenges such as gender bias, ill-fitting personal protective equipment and a lack of underground ablution facilities.

To address these challenges, KBC’s cultural programme, called RISKI DISKI, combines behaviour-based safety training and risk management to create greater awareness around these issues.

“The RISKI DISKI programme touches on cultural diversity and the importance of teamwork to achieve a harmonious and productive work environment. With the revamp of RISKI DISKI, we aim to increase awareness around gender bias in the mining industry particularly,” explains Thurtell.

The company works with mining clients to upskill the surrounding communities, particularly women, and it also aims to create a committee for women working across the industry to share their experiences and create relevant solutions.

Thurtell

suggests that issues faced by women be escalated to human resources and to those in leadership positions who can make policy changes.

“It starts with company policy and mandating certain guidelines around hiring quotas, and ensuring that women working in mining organisations have a pipeline into leadership positions so that they can see a pathway to improving and advancing themselves.”

She adds that mining companies should also allow for transparency regarding pay disparity to ensure gender equality.

Addressing these issues will enable and encourage more women to work in the industry, thereby creating a diverse workforce which will, in turn, provide greater insight and creativity to further improve mining operations.

Meanwhile, KBC hosted a webinar, titled ‘Women in Mining’, in August last year to shed some light on and address the challenges of women working in the mining industry.

The webinar highlighted that only 3% of women were represented in leadership positions in mining companies globally.

Thurtell says the webinar inspired KBC to do more to assist women in the industry.

“As a business that consults in the industry, we need to educate ourselves first, which we are undertaking. “We want to get more involved and see how we can better assist our clients in addressing the challenges faced by women,” she concludes.